Actually, if it really is _so simple_ and the rule is "use the first word" you don't need to specify the stop characters, greediness of the '+' will do the job for you: 
$teststring =~ /(\w+)/ ...

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In reply to Re^3: Problem with RegEx & various "endings" by pjotrik
in thread Problem with RegEx & various "endings" by timesink

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